Sometime back I had put a poll on my Instagram handle as to know which recipes my readers were looking forward to on the blog. Sometimes, it is good to know if there are any specific recipes that are not there on the blog, but are being searched. I know that the blog misses some basic posts and InShaAllah, I am planning to work on them, but time is more precious now and hence it will take time than expected. 🙂 Anyway, one of them that was mentioned was hotel style Chicken Hakka Noodles. When we cook home food, why do we want hotel style? I am always bogged down by this question. Home food should taste like home food, period. I agree that certain food is made the best by hotels, but I wouldn’t agree to making it the same way at home. Home made food will…

Fish is something I love to eat, though I am not able to pull it into my diet as much as I would love to. 🙁 The kids are not really fond of fish and neither is HD. Moreover, for them, fish is more of any afternoon affair than dinner. So if I cook at night, then they frown. I don’t understand this mentality. Actually, I suffer from it too. We are fixated with a few thoughts and norms since childhood that we don’t feel like accepting any change, for example, eating upma at night. One day, I came home, pushed my bags and told HD, “Come, let’s make upma and fish fry for dinner.” He gave me a big stare, and asked, “What??? Anybody eats upma for dinner?” I just retorted, “It’s food, no?” 😀 Somehow even the girls gave a very odd look, but we still ended…

Quote time for today… 🙂 Somehow, reading through this made me realize that we all have this inner feeling in us, where we wish we could back to a particular scenario or be that particular person we were. The fact that the past is not somewhere we are encouraged to live in is also a good enough reason to look forward and live on. Our past is supposed to contain our lessons, to be learned and implemented into various facets of our life. From every good and bitter experience, there are so many takeaways that will help us keep up with the challenges of the life, as life moves on… Since chicken happens to be a family favorite and all prefer it in dry form more than curry form, I am always on the look out for new ideas. Once I had landed up accidentally with…

Last week, Azza was insisting that I tell her a story to put her off to sleep. I was terribly tired and had absolutely no energy to speak. My mind was totally focused on sleeping, but she wouldn’t listen. Despite begging and pleading and threatening, she still wanted to hear a story. Finally, I started, “Once upon a time, there was an ummi (that’s what my kids call me). She would wake up at five in the morning. She would finish her prayers, warm milk for her two naughty girls, and then pack their lunch boxes. She would then wake them up….” I continued describing how my routine is in the form of a story. As soon as she heard it, she was continuously giggling and finally when I reached the part “where the ummi comes back from office and has to make dinner…” she said, “Eni ummi urangikko…”…

Being the hyper blogger I am, I have decided not to keep this blog inactive, even though I will not be much involved with it till early September, as I travel to my home country to relax, just like I already mentioned in my last post! It is after almost four years that I am going on a long break of 5 weeks – all my previous visits including last years was maximum upto 2 weeks – so you can imagine I am pretty excited about the same! 🙂 In between, I had started sharing a few microwave recipes, which you can refer to here. This is the last meal I cooked in the microwave by referring to this recipe, after which I have not tried because I found it easier to cook on the gas stove than otherwise. However, with the summers peaking and the kitchen becoming really…

A new year is always about resolutions. I have always wondered – why does it have to be? We all know very well that our life is on a tipping scale, on which we are on a balance. Nobody has a clue as to what will happen – forget about tomorrow – the very next moment. We live a life of uncertainty, in all ways. And never say of anything, “Indeed, I will do that tomorrow” – Al Qura’n – Surah Kahf 18:23 I realize there is no tomorrow in life, it is always today. I have to discover my strengths today, my weaknesses today, create all the inroads today and get closer to Allah today. Nobody guarantees tomorrow for us. So it is for us to take into account this bitter truth and ensure that we take advantage of every second that comes by. One of the biggest…

Blogging seems to have a terrible pull. I have to agree. I was supposed to take complete rest today before I start the coming week with quite a bit of roaming activities, but then I’m back on here to do at least one post, so that I don’t feel that I am neglecting my little baby! 🙂 Weekends over here are normally supposed to be out, but then it happens to be one of the rare ones where I am stuck at home with the kids and have no mood whatsoever to do, whether it’s cooking or eating!!! After having had a hectic week of some marathon running around, sitting at home today feels strange!!! Hehe… Today, I am sharing with you a chicken recipe, which I am sure many of us have our own style of making. Chilli Chicken is one Indo-Chinese dish that everybody would lick clean. Normally,…

Having talked so much about the weather a couple of posts now, I guess yesterday was the height of things. As I got out of office, wondering why it was looking so cloudy… suddenly was faced with a situation of driving in a terrible sandstorm that had reduced visibility to minimal levels. It was so difficult to see the sides or even the front cars and we had to drive extremely slow. Since I took the city route, it was bearable, but my colleagues, who normally take the highway had quite a tough time seeing the roads and the lanes. This situation lasted for almost an hour till it settled towards sunset. Quite scary it was… however these experiences are not new here, keeps happening… 🙂 And don’t worry, I was pretty calm yesterday unlike the storm but yes, when my energies dry out by sleep time, I’m a…